So… You want to buy a home. Right?

If you have been a lifelong renter – effectively, paying someone else’s mortgage for them – taking the steps to buy your first home may seem like a daunting task.

Where to begin? Where to look? Do I want a yard? How much can I afford? How long is all this going to take?

These are just a small sample of the questions you will need to sit down and ask yourself as you start the process of buying a home for the first time. The good news is, buying a home doesn’t have to be that difficult – in fact, it can be a pretty painless process if you have the right realtor and mortgage professional guiding you through the process.

Once you have decided that YES you do want to buy a home – the MOST important first step is to sit down with your mortgage professional (like ME for instance) and go over the whole process from start to finish, review your credit to identify any roadblocks or red flags, go over income and asset information to make sure there are no issues with down payment and funds needed to close, and identify any other aspects of your situation that might make you a better fit for one program versus another (are you a Veteran? Do you need gift funds from family? etc…) ALL of this process will lead to you getting what we call a “Pre-Approval”.

According to Trulia.com – more sales are falling through because of home-buyers (especially FIRST time home buyers) possibly not getting a good pre-approval to start the process – you can read their analysis of that trend here:

My goal as a mortgage professional? To have you go see homes that you can afford and will face no difficulty in closing the deal. We cannot do that without having a good picture of WHO you are as a borrower. The last thing we want is to have a contingent contract in the works, only to find out a week from closing that we can’t close because of – whatever problem arises! Once we get under contract, we all want to GET YOU TO THE CLOSING TABLE! Nothing feels better than being handed the keys after all the paperwork is done.

The reality is sometimes deals fall through. Sometimes, there is nothing that can be done in advance to stop that from happening. BUT – many failed deals can be avoided if we take the time in the beginning to make sure we all have proper expectations set, and have done our homework with regards to pre-approving the client. And the easiest time to set proper expectations is before you look at homes and sign a contract.

Please feel free to comment below – I am more than happy to share my knowledge with anyone looking to buy a home, refinance an existing mortgage, or just someone THINKING about it. 😉